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Cal still winless heading into Big Game 

Cal head football coach finally came the realization on Saturday that hit most observers weeks ago. 

“We’re just not very good, and that’s a big understatement,” Holmoe said of his team after a 55-14 beating courtesy of the USC Trojans, Cal’s school-record 12th loss in a row dating back to last season. 

The Bears (0-9 overall, 0-7 Pac-10) failed in every facet of the game on Saturday, gaining a season-low 223 yards and committing four turnovers on offense while conceding 448 yards on defense. The all-around struggle has become a theme for Cal this season, and Holmoe admitted he didn’t know what it would take to fix the myriad of problems the team faces every week. 

“I don’t have the answers, and that’s why I won’t be the coach here next year,” said Holmoe, who announced his resignation the previous Sunday. 

Cal’s season was summed up nicely on the Trojans’ final score of the game. Eric Holtfreter, the third quarterback to take the field for the Bears, was hit from the blindside by USC lineman Kenechi Udeze and fumbled the ball. Running back Michael Sparks, a walk-on freshman who was fifth on the depth chart to start the year, didn’t see the ball go by him and stood with his back to the play as John Cousins picked up the ball and ran 89 yards for a touchdown with just 22 seconds left in the game. 

Other lowlights included starting quarterback Kyle Boller throwing an interception that Troy Polamalu returned 53 yards for a score and a USC fake field goal that turned into another touchdown. Holmoe said that the Trojan trickery, called by head coach Pete Carroll with the score already 28-7 in the third quarter, was simply a friendly gesture. 

“It’s like two brothers playing chess,” said Holmoe, who coached with Carroll for the San Francisco 49ers in 1995. “I was hot, but if I had the chance to do the same thing, I would. I still love him to death.” 

Carroll’s team managed to beat up the Bears on the ground despite the absence of starting tailback Saleem McCullough due to injury. The Trojans (5-5, 4-3) dug deep into their bench to find freshman Chris Howard, who had just 11 carries coming into the game. Howard responded by scoring on his first two carries, first on a pitchout to the right for 25 yards to tie the score at 7-7, then on a pitchout to the left for 15 yards that made the score 28-7 just before halftime. 

Meanwhile, after a promising opening drive that ended in a Boller 5-yard touchdown run, the Bears went 3-and-out twice. Boller then threw a pass that was deflected by linebacker Mike Pollard and picked out of the air by DeShaun Hill. They wouldn’t reach the USC side of the field again until freshman Reggie Robertson replaced Boller after the starter suffered a jaw injury. Robertson led the team to a touchdown, hitting wide receiver Charon Arnold with an 8-yard scoring pass, but by then the game was already out of hand. 

“We got off to a good start, but we had a couple drives where we didn’t execute, and then things just started happening to us,” receiver LaShaun Ward said. 

Those “things” have been happening to the Bears all season, starting with their first loss to Illinois and continuing through every excruciating week, and the players are finally starting to sound fed up with the futility. 

“This season’s been really hard, really frustrating,” Boller said. “There’s no reason we can’t be in these games.” 

“This has been the most frustrating, hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” senior linebacker Scott Fujita said. “We’ve tried new things every week, but we can’t even get our basic stuff right.” 

Next up is the Big Game, and it could get ugly for the Bears against Stanford’s offensive juggernaut, which averages nearly 40 points per game, as USC was scoring just 23 points per game before Saturday. It’s often said that Cal fans don’t care if the Bears win another game all year if they just beat the hated Cardinal. 

“I guess we get to test out that scenario,” Holmoe said with a rueful smile.